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Autism Goes to College: Understanding the Needs of a Student Population on the Rise

  • S.I. : College experiences for students with ASD
  • Published:
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Abstract

Understanding the needs of adolescents and emerging adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with respect to transition to postsecondary education is critical to development of user-informed transition programming. Parents of adolescents and emerging adults with ASD (n = 52) and ADHD (n = 47) completed an online survey. Social interaction training and independent living training were services frequently requested by parents in the ASD group. Additionally, parents of postsecondary students with ASD endorsed distinct challenges with self-advocacy, managing emotions, and managing personal/adaptive skills relative to postsecondary students with ADHD. The profile of parent-reported difficulties and needed services compared to transition to postsecondary education for students with ASD is distinguishable from that for ADHD, suggesting individualized transition planning and in-college supports.

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Notes

  1. Non-parametric tests revealed no relationship between the type of school attended and the student’s diagnostic group.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by National Institutes of Mental Health R34MH104337 to SWW; and the Virginia Tech Graduate Research Development Program to RE.

Author Contributions

RE participated in the study design and coordination of the study, carried out the analyses, interpreted results, and drafted the manuscript. SWW conceived of the study, participated in its design, supervised the analyses, and reviewed and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 109 Williams Hall (0436), Blacksburg, VA, 24060, USA

    Rebecca Elias & Susan W. White

Authors
  1. Rebecca Elias
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  2. Susan W. White
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Correspondence to Rebecca Elias.

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Conflict of interest

Both authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 4.

Table 4 General Instructions: The online survey consists of 2 qualitative open-ended questions. All standard questions should be coded unless the survey respondent did not give an answer, or gave “I don’t know” as a response; these items should be left blank
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Elias, R., White, S.W. Autism Goes to College: Understanding the Needs of a Student Population on the Rise. J Autism Dev Disord 48, 732–746 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3075-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3075-7

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